


catch my breath

by transvav



Series: arose from ash and dust [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: 7 Days AU, M/M, Minor Character Death, ZOMBIES!!!, a prequel!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 21:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11814738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transvav/pseuds/transvav
Summary: "Don't fall in love with me, Ryan."(a 3 + 1 fic where gavin tells ryan what to avoid)





	catch my breath

**Author's Note:**

> mmm thank ryan @gaywood for this. love these boys

i.

 

Gavin’s on the rooftop again.

It’s raining heavily on their little area in paradise, a heavy downpour enough to flood the trenches they’ve dug the previous days. They’ll fix it when it dries.

Ryan watches from the trapdoor entrance for a while, as Gavin’s hair sticks to his forehead and his shirt sticks to his back. Thunder rumbles. The monsters below them groan.

Ryan sits next to him and Gavin leans in, picking absentmindedly at the bandages on his arm and hand. Ryan takes his hand to stop him, and their fingers tangle together.

“Did you take some honey, at least?” Ryan asks under the cacophony of the thunder. Gavin nods absentmindedly. After a moment, Ryan shrugs off his sweater and puts it on Gavin. The lad shifts closer, and Ryan’s heart beats faster.

The two of them have been alone, together, for some time, and it’s easy to get close. When it gets too cold, they share a bed. When it gets too hot, they share their water. Ryan watches after Gavin because the brit isn’t the best at taking care of himself. It started as company for company’s sake, and now it’s hard to imagine the apocalypse without him.

Now, though, it’s even more distressingly difficult, because something dangerous tends to grow when two people are alone for this long.

“Promise me something,” Gavin whispers into nothing and Ryan hums. Gavin turns to him, something serious in his eyes. “Promise me you won’t fall in love with me.”

Ryan looks back at him, _really_ looks back at him, and nods once. He doesn’t say it aloud.

“I don’t want to cause you any more problems, when I die. I don’t want you too bloody distressed when I’m gone, I suppose, and loving me...”

“Right,” Ryan says. He doesn’t bring up the fact that even being friends like this, it might cause him distress, but Gavin’s been in the rain, and the horde comes soon, and they both need rest. “Let’s get inside, okay?”

 

ii.

 

There’s a small group they meet up with when they’re traveling to meet to trader. It consists of an older man missing an arm, a younger man with a thick beard, another young man with a crossbow at his back, and a middle aged couple that seem nearly codependant. They agree to let Ryan and Gavin travel with them, just to the city.

In the middle of one of the night watches, they hear a scream from the woman in the group.

Her lover is at her side, angry and violent towards the surprise horde that is overtaking their camp. Each person defends a different point in their circle and it gets to dawn before it goes from a crowd to a few stragglers, but the damage is done.

The woman died very early, and they were unable to save her, bite marks along her arms and neck and legs. She starts to turn as the sun breaks on the edge of the horizon, and when it is fully in the sky she’s tied up and growling, and her partner is sobbing as he takes a gun and aims for her head.

They reach the city that day, and the stranger is inconsolable. As Gavin and Ryan leave the city on a bike the trader gave to them for the pills they found (no one knows about the honey, yet. That’s their little secret.), Gavin rests his chin on Ryan’s shoulder and clings to him tight.

“That’s why,” he says over the roar of the engine. “Don’t fall in love with me, Ryan.”

Ryan says nothing, driving down the surprisingly intact highway, and something in his gut rearing an ugly head. Gavin tightens his grip and they continue home.

 

iii.

 

Not loving someone doesn’t stop Ryan from wanting them.

Because Gavin is beautiful, even now, in what might as well be hell. It’s an unconventional beauty but it’s there- his hair is choppy and messy from makeshift haircuts, but it’s soft and golden when it’s clean from rain. His eyes are a muddled green but they _shine,_ goddammit, bright and curious and still a spot of joy in this useless shitshow of a world. His figure is thin and his face is clear and Ryan can’t help but _want_ , and want, and endlessly want.

Gavin comes home with a jar of peach moonshine and a smile so wide his face might break. Ryan doesn’t drink, never really did, but he can’t resist Gavin.

When it’s dark and the area’s clear the two of them are lounging on the old couch, Gavin’s face on Ryan chest, giggling while Ryan’s laughing too, jostling the lad on top of him, telling stupid jokes and stupid stories and eventually Ryan says-

“God, you’re gorgeous.”

Gavin falls silent against him, and Ryan looks up to meet his eyes. He crawls forward on top of him and brushes the tips of their noses together. “Two things,” Gavin says, and Ryan raises an eyebrow.

“Don’t fall in love with me,” Gavin whispers, and internally, Ryan sighs. But the corners of Gavin’s mouth twitch upwards and he leans down just enough. “Kiss me?”

Ryan does, and it’s like heaven. Gavin has honey on his breath, still, and peach moonshine and everything about kissing Gavin aches. Hands slide along bodies (shirts off, it’s too hot for too much of anything) and Ryan starts kissing at Gavin’s neck. Like an afterthought, to keep himself grounded before things go farther, Gavin says it again.

“Don’t you dare fall in love with me, Ryan.”

Ryan kisses him to shut him up, and coherent words are lost that night.

 

+.

 

They’re spending the night holed up in a hotel that they’ve explored before, and for once they have a bed but as it stands, Gavin’s on the roof again.

As things go, he’s beautiful always, but he’s close to godlike against a sunset, golden orange and haloed in light.

Ryan takes his hand again and kisses at the back of it and something settles gently in him when he does that, but suddenly Gavin pulls away.

“What have you done?” Gavin says, and there’s something so upset in his eyes that it hurts Ryan even as he smiles. He puts his hands on Gavin’s face and pulls him close, resting his forehead on Gavin’s and letting him calm down. Gavin puts one hand on top of Ryan’s and breathes. “You said you wouldn’t,” he mourns.

“I never said that,” Ryan tells him. “Not once. Besides,” he laughs, breathless. “I didn’t have to fall in love. By the time you asked me not to, I already was.”

“You shouldn’t have fallen,” Gavin whispers.

“You shouldn’t have given me the chance.”

Gavin grasps the back of his head and pulls him in for a kiss, and this time, it doesn’t ache as much- there’s something so much more gentle, but so much more desperate this time, because it’s so much more real and so much more _hungry_.

“How selfish of me,” Gavin says when they break, “to tell you to not fall in love.”

“Selfish?”

“I didn’t want it to hurt when you left me, if we loved each other,” he explains. “Even though it would have hurt anyways, at that point.”

“True,” Ryan laughs, and kisses him again. “I love you.”

“How awful,” Gavin hums, and holds his hands when that start going down the stairs. “I’ll never know why you do.”

**Author's Note:**

> my [tumblr](http://transvav.tumblr.com)  
> tasty!!!


End file.
